In All Marketers Are Liars, Seth Godin argues that good marketing is spreading ideas through good storytelling. Everyone is a marketer because everyone has ideas to spread. Often, the story you tell about your idea is just as important as the idea itself. His principles of storytelling can be applied to product marketing, dating, politics, job hunting, and more.
Godin is a writer, entrepreneur, marketer, and blogger. Published in 2005, All Marketers Are Liars aims to improve your storytelling. His advice is helpful for people who are beginners or unfamiliar with the world of marketing.
Godin breaks down his ideas into five principles. Telling a good story first requires understanding worldviews and how consumers process information. Once you start thinking like a consumer, Godin says, you can tailor your story to make a good first impression. He then discusses avoiding the fine line between telling a story with a fib (stretching the truth in a way that resonates with the customer) and committing fraud. In the final principle, he talks about common marketing obstacles you may encounter, as well as how to overcome them.
When you hear the word “advertising,” what do you think of? If catchy jingles, milk carton ads, or TV infomercials come to mind, you’re probably thinking of outdated marketing techniques. Because advertisers traditionally addressed mass audiences, they succeeded by appealing mainly to people’s needs, and eventually, their wants. Often, companies spent a little on advertising, because their main focus was on increasing profit by cutting production costs. Godin argues that because of advances in technology, old marketing is outdated and ineffective.
(Shortform note: Some marketers believe old marketing isn’t completely obsolete. One marketing expert found that old marketing techniques like promotional gifts, coupons, and slogans are still effective. You should tailor your use of old-style advertising to your specific product and campaign.)
Godin takes a broader view of modern marketing in this book. Instead of thinking of marketing exclusively as trying to sell a product, he believes marketing is spreading ideas. He argues that you can market just about anything: products, services, job qualifications, religions, political candidates, and more. Which makes the marketplace—or all the different forums in which you can spread ideas—a pretty big place.
Additionally, new marketing places more focus on the consumer. According to Godin, new marketers must keep up with the constantly evolving marketplace and changing consumer demands. He therefore urges new marketers to understand that they are not in charge—customers are. Your customer will be a major influence on your marketing because you must tailor the ideas you’re spreading to customer feelings.
(Shortform note: Godin’s view of marketing as focusing on the spread of ideas to the consumer soon won converts in the industry. In 2008, the American Marketing Association (AMA) echoed Godin’s view when they updated their definition of marketing. The new definition described marketing as an educational process that benefits marketers, consumers, and society as a whole. This definition differs from the AMA’s previous one, which defined marketing as a function that delivers value to customers for the benefit of companies.)
Because people often buy based on emotion rather than need, Godin argues that it’s important for marketers to appeal to beliefs and feelings. This can involve lying by a certain definition. Godin defines lies as stories people tell themselves, which marketers build on. The consumer’s belief in a marketer’s lie makes it true—and our belief in how a product will make us feel is what we’re really buying. Therefore, he uses the terms lying and storytelling interchangeably.
(Shortform note: Godin says storytelling is one of the best ways to communicate with potential customers and address their beliefs and feelings. And because of an increasing amount of media options and consumption, there are more ways to tell complex, yet subtle stories about products. Podcast ads, YouTube ads, influencer sponsorships, email marketing, ads on blogs, social media marketing, and brand partnerships are just a few examples of the opportunities new media afford marketers.)
Godin’s first principle of modern marketing is that a good story starts with a specific worldview. To be effective, your marketing story must jibe with your prospective customer’s worldview, the set of beliefs, values, and biases that determines how they see and interact with the world. While everyone has the same basic wants and needs (food, shelter, to be happy, healthy, and so on), Godin explains that their worldview determines how they fulfill them.
For example, consider the difference between someone on a Keto diet (which emphasizes consuming a high percentage of fat) and someone on a plant-based diet. Both people probably feel that they have found a dietary lifestyle that balances health and nutrition. Their different solutions to a common goal reflect different worldviews. When your marketing story not only addresses a customer need but also validates their worldview or beliefs, Godin believes the customer is more likely to use your product and keep coming back.
People with similar worldviews or beliefs often group into small niches or micro-communities. Godin says a marketer’s success lies in finding the right group of people with a shared worldview and telling them a compelling story that aligns with it. Godin warns that worldviews can change collectively or individually. If your customers’ worldview changes but your story doesn’t, you could quickly lose a big portion of your audience, so you should pay attention to your customers and social changes.
Understanding and Changing Worldviews
Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People suggests another way to define worldviews, which he calls paradigms. He defines paradigms as the lenses through which you see the world and that shape how you interpret your situations and surroundings. These interpretations dictate your behavior, much like Godin’s idea of worldviews influencing you to buy a product.
Our sense of self is often tied to our worldview. We usually have an automatic, defensive response to information that threatens our worldview, and therefore, our sense of self. We also tend to dismiss facts that don’t conform to our worldview (also known as confirmation bias). This can be tricky to navigate as a marketer. So how do you do it?
Covey offers an answer for how to change a perspective. He proposes becoming aware of your biases, identifying the worldviews you want to adopt, and shifting your perspective. While his writing is geared toward individuals wanting to adjust their worldviews, advertisers can tailor his ideas to their marketing story to thoughtfully address a worldview. Ask yourself: What bias are you addressing? How does your product answer that worldview? Does it offer a better solution or new reality?
Now that you know what a worldview is, how can you use that to tell a better story? How do you tell a story that doesn’t conflict with your customer’s worldview? In addition, how do you control the story around something that could be viewed as a negative? Godin says using three tools—frames, euphemisms, and oxymorons—can help you align your story with a worldview.
Worldviews affect what information the customer takes in and how. Godin’s second principle of modern marketing explains how consumers process information and make what he calls snap judgments. Understanding your customers’ thinking can help you break through the noise of other products and catch your customer’s attention. Godin breaks down four steps customers go through as they make snap judgments in the marketplace:
As we saw in Principle 2, consumers frequently make snap judgments about people, products, food, stores, website design, dating profiles, and more. Godin argues that most people make their decision about something—such as whether or not they like someone, or if they want to buy that shirt—within moments of encountering it.
People’s tendency to make quick, lasting judgments means it’s important to make a good first impression about your product and company. Before we talk about how to do this, let’s dissect what Godin means by first impressions and how they’re different from first encounters.
A customer’s first encounter is their initial introduction to your product. They may walk into your store on a whim or click on your website by accident. However, the first encounter may not cause them to engage with your story. And if it doesn’t engage them, they’ll disregard their first encounter as they interact with other options in the marketplace. In contrast, Godin contends that when you successfully grab the customer’s attention at an encounter, you create an impression that leads them to make a snap judgment about your idea or product. That’s why first impressions are important for a marketer—it’s your best (and sometimes only) opportunity to get through to a customer.
(Shortform note: Color plays a big role in a customer’s first impression. In a 2006 study, researchers discovered that up to 90% of snap judgments about products are based on color. Your choice of color can influence mood, appetite, and even perception of time spent waiting.)
While first impressions are important, Godin says it’s also just as important to remember that the first encounter won’t always lead to a customer’s first impression. Since not every encounter will turn into an impression, the best you can do as a marketer is make sure that no matter what encounter they have, it's a good one. That way, when it does eventually make an impression on them (and Godin assumes that an impression will happen eventually), it'll be a favorable one. He argues that to ensure good encounters—and by extension, good impressions—every way you incorporate your story into your marketing should be perfect—or as close as you can get. How? Godin gives two answers:
1) Be authentic. Tell a story that aligns with your company, the product itself, and brand identity. This could be a story about luxury, family, beauty, or comfort—just be sure this story is true to the overall ethos of your idea and brand. (Shortform note: How do you align your story with your company values? In Start With Why, Simon Sinek discusses the importance of defining your mission as a company and why you’re doing what you’re doing in business. That way, you have a clear set of values that will authentically guide your stories.)
2) Be cohesive: Because you don’t know if a customer’s first (or second or third) encounter will be their first impression, it’s best to cover your bases and incorporate your authentic story into every possible encounter. If you tell an authentic story across all potential encounters, you’re more likely to make a good first impression. Godin says all departments are part of the marketing department. If the president of your favorite company used a competitor’s products, would that change your perception of their products?
(Shortform note: In Godin’s view, your goal in marketing is to turn strangers into friends and friends into customers. To turn strangers into customers, try making a marketing plan. In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, Allan Dibs believes good marketing can be broken down into three phases: attention, familiarity, and enthusiasm. Generate interest by identifying your target audience, developing the message you’ll tell that audience, and figuring out what medium you’ll use to tell them that story. Then design a process that will help your customer get familiar with your company, like signing up for email notifications or putting a product in their cart. Get your lead’s contact information into a database, deliver value, and build their trust. Then focus on continually giving them a great experience, for instance with great customer service)
Godin believes personal interactions are the best way to foster authentic relationships with consumers. This could come from a recommendation from a friend, a pleasant interaction with an employee, or a friendly phone call. He recommends you ditch the script and connect with your customers. Good personal interactions cut through the gimmicks and create lasting impressions.
(Shortform note: In Raving Fans, Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles describe how creating better customer service experiences can help companies succeed. They say the key to happy (not just satisfied) customers is through this five-step plan: define your ideal customer service experience, discover your customer’s ideal experience, integrate your vision with their needs, build an effective and consistent system, and always exceed customer expectations.)
As we discussed earlier, marketers are selling the story, not the product. People buy a product because of how that story makes them feel, not because of logic. And if you’re marketing to a worldview, you’ll be telling your story to people who want to listen. This leaves room for marketers to exploit consumers and how they feel about a product’s story.
When marketing, you shouldn’t exploit consumers with your storytelling. Godin urges marketers to know the difference between telling a “fib” and committing fraud—and to never commit fraud.
Godin defines a fib as a story that may not be 100% factual or based in reality. Fibs are used to appeal to a customer’s feelings. But if a fib is believed, it doesn’t cause any harm to the customer, and it enhances your product. Godin notes that it’s okay to fib parts of your story—bending the truth here and there in a way that benefits both you and your customer. If you tell a fib and your customer believes it, it becomes true.
(Shortform note: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Institute for Advertising Ethics (IAE) are two organizations that distinguish the line between fibs and frauds. Both organizations echo Godin’s claim that products should not cause harm to the consumer. This includes physical, psychological, and financial harm. When appropriate, scientific evidence should be cited to back up advertising claims. The IAE also notes that it should be clear to consumers that they’re viewing an advertisement—in other words, don’t masquerade your ad as news or editorial content.)
Godin uses Georg Riedel as an example. Riedel is a glassblower who specializes in wine glasses. People—even those in the wine-tasting community—insist his glasses improve the taste of the wine. Riedel’s story (that a good wine deserves a luxury vessel for a better tasting experience) aligns authentically with his product (handcrafted wine glasses). People believe that wine tastes better in a Riedel glass, despite no factual evidence to back this up. Their belief in the product improves their experience drinking wine, so the story benefits both Riedel and his customers. It’s a common fib in the wine-tasting community that the right wine glass can improve the taste of wine.
(Shortform note: There may not have been much research on the topic at the time of the book’s initial publication in 2005. However, more recent studies show that there may actually be a correlation. One Japanese study supports the idea that glass shape influences taste, while another study shows that visual perception influences taste.)
When you abuse the consumer’s potential to be exploited, Godin says you’re committing fraud. Telling a story that benefits only you and not the customer is fraud. Whereas a customer’s belief in a fib makes it true, a customer’s belief in fraud doesn’t make it true. Fibs can enhance your product, while fraud hides the fact your product isn’t as good as you’re claiming it is. When a customer discovers fraud, they’ll feel betrayed, and it will be difficult to regain their trust.
(Shortform note: The title of Godin’s book is misleading, and some readers expressed their confusion about it. Marketers are liars in the sense that they are fibbing or stretching the subjective truth of their story, but they are not making objectively untrue statements, advertising harmful claims, or lying to the point of deceit or fraud. So marketers aren’t really liars by the usual definition, just storytellers or fibbers.)
For example, women’s wellness brand Goop faced a lawsuit over claims their “vaginal eggs” could balance hormones and regulate menstrual cycles. They also claimed their “flower essence” would cure depression. These claims were not scientifically backed and caused harm to customers who believed this story, resulting in a $145,000 settlement.
You now understand the characteristics of an effective story, the difference between fibs and frauds, and why you should never commit fraud. This section discusses common obstacles you’ll run into as a marketer and how to use them to your advantage. First, we’ll tackle how to handle competitors. Then, we’ll identify where you might have gone wrong if your product didn’t do as well as you thought it would.
Competition in the marketplace fosters creativity and innovation. Unless you create an entirely new industry, you’ll no doubt have to deal with competitors and their stories. If someone is already telling a good story, how do you survive in the marketplace? Godin presents a few ways to handle competition:
Determine Your Competitors
By identifying who is and is not a competitor, it’ll be easier for you to determine where to look for inspiration and when to appeal to a different worldview. As you develop your marketing for a product, it’s important to position yourself within the marketplace and identify your friends and foes. Consider completing a competitor analysis by examining your competition, what works for them, and the different kinds of stories they’re telling. Competition can fall into three categories:
Primary competitors: When you hear “competitors,” the first companies or people that come to mind are probably your primary competitors. They target a similar product or service to your audience. Wendy’s and McDonald’s are primary competitors.
Secondary competitors: These companies offer similar products to a different audience, or they offer a similar product of greater or lesser quality. For example, Tiffany is a secondary competitor to Kay Jewelers. Both sell jewelry but for different audiences and at different price points.
Tertiary competitors: These competitors are loosely related to your company or industry. They don’t pose much of a threat unless they decide to expand into your market. Gatorade and Under Armour are tertiary competitors because they’re loosely related by the worldview they address (one that values athletic excellence). But unless Under Armour decides to create a line of sports drinks, they don’t pose a threat to Gatorade.
You’ll no doubt encounter some bumps in the road on your marketing journey. Let’s say you’ve used Godin’s tips, and you think you’ve got a great product to market. Godin outlines four common problems that can occur:
Published in 2005, All Marketers Are Liars offers a fresh take on marketing—one that focuses on connecting with your customer, rather than on catchy advertising jingles or gimmicks. Seth Godin wants you to tell your customers or audience a great story about your product, your political campaign, your job experience, or even just yourself. This book explores new marketing concepts that you can use to tell a better story in any area of your life.
Using anecdotes and examples to illustrate his points, Godin guides you through understanding your customer, staying authentic with your storytelling, and troubleshooting common marketing problems. While Godin addresses marketers, these insights are also helpful for anyone with a story to tell.
Seth Godin is a writer, marketer, entrepreneur, public speaker, and blogger. He worked as a brand manager and the head of game development for a software company, and in 1986, he started a book packaging business.
Later, he founded Yoyodyne, a company that used interactive online games and contests to market companies to users. During this time, he pioneered the concept of permission marketing—advertising to people who give consent to being marketed to—and he published Permission Marketing. Eventually, Yahoo purchased Yoyodyne, and in 1998, Godin became Yahoo’s vice president of direct marketing. In 2018, he was inducted into the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Hall of Fame.
He published the first book about online business, E-Marketing, in 1995. Godin has written 19 books—mainly focusing on 21st-century marketing—and Purple Cow is one of the best-selling marketing books. He was an early advocate of the power of consumers, and he’s known for his conversational writing style.
Other notable works from Seth Godin:
Connect with Seth Godin:
Publisher: Portfolio, a division of Penguin Group
Originally published in 2005, All Marketers Are Liars follows the publication of Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside! Godin expands on ideas introduced in the books about mass marketing, the power of consumers, and the importance of telling a great story about a great product.
In 2009, an updated version of the book was released with a change in the book jacket design and explanation of the title. This guide is based on the 2009 version.
The internet sparked the transition away from old advertising and toward Godin’s idea of new marketing. It gave marketers new ways to sell products and interact with consumers. Having seen the marketing landscape change due to the internet, Godin became a leading voice in advocating for more thoughtful and honest marketing tactics. He coined the term “permission marketing” in his book of the same name, in which marketers advertise to consumers who are aware of and consent to being advertised to.
By the time of the book’s publication in 2005, social media platforms had begun to emerge—MySpace and LinkedIn were started in 2003, and Facebook was established in 2004—which would eventually change the marketing industry. Many of his marketing concepts are similar to brand marketing, which was popularized by social media. Brand marketing focuses on building a company’s identity.
All Marketers Are Liars also seems to have been influenced by the 2004 presidential election, as Godin references it a few times throughout the book. This election (which Godin describes as “brutal”) saw George W. Bush defeat John Kerry, despite Bush’s fluctuation in popularity during his first term. Godin argues that Bush won the election because he told a better story to voters (that he was a decisive leader, unlike Kerry, who “flip-flopped” on issues).
Following the changes to marketing sparked by the internet, viral marketing gained popularity in the mid-’90s. This refers to a strategy used by companies to encourage the spread of an idea or product throughout a community, often like a virus. In 1995, the term was coined during the marketing of Sony’s first PlayStation. While it can occur via word of mouth, the inherent network structure of the internet makes it easier for viral marketing to succeed.
Godin’s ideas seem to be a reaction to this concept (he even uses the term “ideavirus” in the book). He advocates for viral marketing and the spreading of ideas through a community. He takes the strategy one step further, advising that you market to people who want to be marketed to (his idea of permission marketing).
Compared to his previous books (Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside), which stick more to marketing in the traditional sense of selling a product, Godin expands his definition of marketing to a broader spread of ideas. He says you’re a marketer if you have an idea to spread, and he lists religion, politics, dating, job hunting, and nonprofits as examples of areas with marketability.
Additionally, Godin’s marketing ideas are often compared to those of David Ogilvy and William Bernbach, who were both major advertising influences in the 1950s and ‘60s. Their ideas are still widely cited today, and they generally focus on knowing your customer, honesty, and creativity—which are themes in Godin’s writing.
All Marketers Are Liars didn’t have quite the impact or popularity of some of Godin’s other books, particularly Purple Cow. Many readers commented on the book’s repetitiveness and were confused by the book’s title. People who were unfamiliar with or were beginners in the world of marketing enjoyed this book, while those with more marketing experience didn’t find it as helpful.
The book was serialized in Fortune Magazine, and it was cited in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The Miami Herald. Godin was praised for his forward thinking and understanding of the internet. All Marketers Are Liars made the Amazon Top 100 bestsellers list.
Godin takes a conversational approach to discussing marketing. He relies heavily on anecdotal evidence and case studies of specific products, rather than scientific studies. Some readers liked this approach, while others wanted more hard evidence. Readers have also noted that the book could be condensed.
All Marketers Are Liars has a loose organizational structure, and Godin often explores tangents in the middle of a section. However, he does attempt to organize this book by breaking down his points into Steps 1 through 5.
Besides presenting his main ideas in Steps 1 through 5, Godin explores asides and case studies in other short chapters and “bonus” sections. Since these ideas don’t need to be followed in any order, we’ve presented them as marketing Principles 1-5.
Throughout the book, Godin talks about the importance of authenticity in several places, particularly in Principles 3 and 5. For clarity, we’ve combined his ideas on authenticity into one section in Principle 3. In Principle 5, we’ll discuss ideas Godin explores in other chapters and bonus sections that deal with overcoming obstacles. We’ve also incorporated ideas from other chapters and bonus information where it fits logically. Where Godin is vague in defining his marketing concepts, we’ll expand on his ideas with insights and actionable tips from other experts.
In All Marketers Are Liars, Seth Godin contends that good marketing is good storytelling. Often, the story you tell about a product is more important than the product itself. If you can tell an effective story that resonates with a customer’s worldview, your message will be more likely to stand out in our increasingly crowded marketplace. Godin defines marketing broadly as spreading ideas, so if you have an idea to spread, you’re a marketer. Therefore, his principles can be applied to many areas of life: selling products, applying for jobs, running for political office, and more. His ideas will help you tell a compelling story.
Seth Godin is a writer, entrepreneur, public speaker, marketer, and blogger who has written 19 books, mainly focusing on 21st-century marketing. In his previous book Purple Cow, he discusses the importance of finding and marketing a remarkable product (which he calls a purple cow). In All Marketers Are Liars, he changes direction, focusing on how a remarkable story can elevate a good product.
Godin breaks down his ideas into five principles. To tell a good story, Godin says marketers need to understand worldviews and how customers process information. Once you start thinking like a consumer, you can tailor your product story to make a good first impression. He then explains how to avoid the fine line between telling a story with a “fib” that appeals to emotions and committing fraud. In the final principle, he talks about common obstacles you may encounter, as well as how to overcome them.
When you hear the word “advertising,” what do you think of? If catchy jingles, milk carton ads, or TV infomercials come to mind, you’re probably thinking of old marketing techniques. These methods were popular in the golden age of television, when there were only a few channels on TV. Fewer channels resulted in advertising that addressed the masses and appealed to universal needs. However, old advertising doesn’t work anymore, and Godin cites a few reasons for this.
First, thanks to the internet, marketers have more opportunities to sell their products.
(Shortform note: According to Godin, because of an increasing amount of media options and consumption, there are more ways to tell complex, yet subtle stories about products. YouTube ads, influencer sponsorships, email marketing, social media marketing, and brand partnerships are just a few examples.)
Second, marketing to people’s needs won’t work anymore, because 1) our basic needs are easier to fulfill (in most parts of the developed world), and 2) there are too many options in the marketplace to stand out by fulfilling a need alone.
(Shortform note: Godin’s assertion that people’s basic needs are easier to fulfill may reflect a privileged stance. According to this 2018 study conducted by the Urban Institute, almost 40% of Americans struggle to meet at least one of their basic needs for food, shelter, health care, and utilities.)
Finally, Godin indicates that a good quality product simply isn’t enough anymore. There are plenty of good products on the market and being the cheapest or fastest won’t necessarily ensure your success.
(Shortform note: Other marketers recommend that you still appeal to needs. In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller suggests that marketers present a survival-related message about their product, such as saving the customer money, time, or resources.)
Is Old Advertising Actually Outdated?
Old marketing focused on converting as many potential consumers (known as leads) into actual customers. Think of old marketing like a fisherman’s net—the idea was to cast a broad net to catch as many fish as possible. This is a much less targeted approach than is used today.
Old marketing also focused on push marketing, which aimed to get consumers’ attention by catching them off-guard or “pushing” products in front of them to get their interest. This is different from pull marketing, which is associated with new marketing and involves drawing consumers to you.
However, old marketing isn’t completely obsolete. One marketing expert found that old marketing techniques like promotional gifts, coupons, and slogans are still effective. You should tailor your use of old advertising and push/pull marketing to your specific product and campaign.
We’ve established that the old advertising techniques aren’t effective in attracting new customers anymore. In addition, the previous focus on reducing production costs no longer helps the bottom line. Because of outsourcing and advances in manufacturing techniques, making products is pretty easy and cheap now. So what do these changes mean for marketers?
New marketing places more focus on the consumer’s perspective. According to Godin, new marketers must keep up with the constantly evolving marketplace and changing consumer demands. He urges marketers to understand that they are not in charge—consumers are. Your marketing message should be tailored to resonate with customer interests and emotions. And the best way to ensure that your message resonates is to tell a story.
Updating the Definition of Marketing
Godin’s view of marketing as focusing on the consumer soon won converts in the industry. In 2008, the American Marketing Association (AMA) echoed this view when they updated their definition of marketing. The new definition described marketing as an educational process that benefits marketers, consumers, and society as a whole. This definition differs from the AMA’s previous one, which defined marketing as a function that delivers value to customers for the benefit of companies.
Because people often buy based on emotion rather than need, it’s important for marketers to appeal to beliefs and feelings. This can involve lying by a certain definition. Godin defines lies as stories people tell themselves, which marketers build on. He uses the terms lying and storytelling interchangeably.
He claims the consumer’s belief in a marketer’s lie makes it true. The product usually doesn’t fix a real problem or need (at least, not any better than a competitor’s cheaper option). Therefore, our belief in how the product will make us feel is what we’re really buying.
For example, compare a pair of $20 Lenovo wireless earbuds with $159 AirPods. They both let you listen to music without the hassle of getting tangled in cords. So why spend the extra $139? You probably like the AirPods better for some reason, right? Godin would attribute this to your belief that using the AirPods makes you cool, despite the fact they’re just a pair of wireless earbuds.
Let’s Address the Elephant in the Room
When All Marketers Are Liars was initially released, many readers were confused by the book’s title. They wondered how marketing constituted lying and whether Godin was advocating lying. There are two ways to understand the title—we’ll discuss one way now, and the second way in Principle 4.
Throughout the book, Godin advocates honesty and authenticity in marketing. This seems to contradict his statement that marketers are liars. However, the distinction is in Godin’s definition of lying as simply telling a story your customers want to believe, that therefore resonates with them—for instance that your product will make them feel better or be more attractive. This differs from the usual definition of lying as misstating objective facts.
Telling a good story is key to ensuring that you successfully spread your idea or sell your product. But what makes a good story? To Godin, effective stories are trusted, authentic, subtle, fast, targeted, and make a promise.
Your story must be based in reality. Even if your story is not objectively factual, the belief in your story must be mutually beneficial for both you and the customer. If your story isn’t true and your customers find out you deceived them, you’ll lose their trust, and it’ll be difficult to earn it back.
Trust-Based Marketing
Godin believes customer trust is a key element of a good story. One method of building trust is to use trust-based marketing, where you form a meaningful relationship with your customer based on honesty and unbiased information. There are many ways to build trust with your customer, but we’ll group them into three general themes, based on Aristotle’s Modes of Persuasion:
Ethos, or credibility: This often comes in the form of endorsements from people of prestige or authority (like doctors or lawyers), from an influencer or celebrity (depending on the product), or a friend. A demonstration of your product could also increase credibility.
Pathos, or emotion: This tactic revolves around appealing to emotions. Having a shared worldview or philosophy with a consumer would fit in this category. Familiarity can also be a form of pathos.
Logos, or logic: This might look like citing evidence or studies for why your product works. Technology companies use this when they list all of their improved product specs.
Ideally, you’d use some form of all three of these modes to build trust with your customer.
Your story must align with your company, product, and overall image. Godin notes that because of the ease of access to information granted by the internet, it’s easier for consumers to fact-check and hold companies accountable. This makes it even more important to be honest and authentic with your messaging.
For example, BP has faced criticism for touting its sustainability and low-emission energy, because this eco-friendly story doesn’t authentically align with BP’s public history as a leader in the gas and oil industry.
Define Your Mission to Ensure Authenticity
How do you align your story with your company? Try defining your mission as a company. In Start With Why, Simon Sinek discusses the importance of defining your mission and why you’re doing what you’re doing. That way, you have a clear set of values that will guide your stories authentically. To define your mission, start by asking yourself these questions:
Why are you doing what you’re doing? Does it bring you or the consumer joy? Or is it just a way to make money?
How are you providing value? What makes your idea or product special? You should be offering your customer some kind of value—whether in the form of a service, product, or idea—and it should make your consumer’s life better in some way.
Who benefits from what you’re providing? If you’re the only one benefiting from it, you may want to spend some time reflecting on your product.
Then work on turning those answers into a concise mission statement as a reminder to stay authentic to these values in your marketing.
As we’ll discuss more in Principle 2, your customer will make a judgment about your product and fill the gaps in the narrative. Godin believes you should focus on incorporating your marketing story into your product and brand, rather than on overexplaining it to your customer.
For example, in 1999, Nike ran a one-minute advertisement honoring the career of athlete Michael Jordan. It wasn’t until the last few seconds of the commercial that Nike included its signature swoosh logo and “Just Do It” slogan at the bottom of the screen. Nike was subtle about its message, while still creating a compelling ad that aligned with its value of excellence in sports.
Subliminal Messaging
Godin’s idea of subtlety in marketing is not a new one. Have you ever noticed the arrow hidden in FedEx’s logo? Or how in Baskin Robbins’s sign, the number “31” (for their flavors) is in pink? These are two examples of subliminal messaging in advertising. This is the idea of using subtle cues to encourage your consumer to make certain subconscious associations—without being aware of it—about a brand and their story.
It’s a tactic more commonly associated with old advertising. One of the most famous instances involving a Coca-Cola advertisement occurred in the 1950s (although science later debunked the tactic as ineffective).
Think of the last time someone told you a joke. Did you get the joke? Or did they have to explain the punchline to you? If yes, did you find it that funny? Marketing works in the same way. Godin says your story has to engage potential customers quickly while you have their attention. If your story takes lots of explaining, they probably won’t listen. Nobody likes to wait for the punchline.
Thinking Fast
Other experts echo Godin’s claim that messaging should be fast. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman discusses our two thinking systems:
System 1: our automatic and quick way of thinking. System 1 wants to make sense of the world and works in terms of what is and isn’t normal.
System 2: our capacity to dedicate meaningful, deliberate attention to complex problems. System 2 requires our conscious attention.
It’s important to make your story fast because people are generally working in the quick System 1. They may not switch to System 2 to dissect complexities or meaning from your message.
As Godin explains in the introduction, the age of mass marketing is over—if you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll appeal to no one. As a marketer, there’s more power in targeting a niche and building a strong sense of community around your product within that niche. These niche customers will be more likely to recommend your product to friends of similar interests.
Create a Persona to Find Your Niche
While Godin doesn't explain how to target a niche, other authors offer insight on how to choose an audience. One way to do this is by creating an ideal customer profile or ideal persona. This involves building a fictional person who would use your product. It combines metrics (like age) with psychology (like what kinds of products they need). Here are a few questions to come up with an ideal consumer:
What’s their name? How old are they?
What do they do for a living? Where do they live?
What do they do for fun? What kind of media do they use?
What upsets them about the world?
What would they like about your product? Where might they hear about your product?
In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore outlines steps to identifying your niche. After generating customer profiles based on the questions above, build purchasing scenarios. Think about how your customers in your profiles might come across your product and how they would use it. Once you’ve developed these scenarios, select the best one. Then ask yourself if any of your competitors are already in this niche.
Once you have a solid idea of your niche, all of your marketing decisions will be tailored to a specific kind of person, instead of the masses. Some companies even find stock photos for their persona and keep them in their offices as a constant reminder to put their target customer first.
Your marketing story should make a promise to your customer, and most importantly, it should deliver on that promise. Tell the customer what value they’ll gain from your product, then provide that value.
For example, Old Spice ran a campaign called “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” The ads targeted women and their perception of their ideal man, promising that if her partner wore Old Spice, he would smell like her ideal man. This was a promise Old Spice could make and realistically keep.
How to Tell a Story
Godin emphasizes the importance of telling a good story. He offers a few characteristics of a good story, but he doesn’t give much actionable advice on crafting a story. So where should you start? In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller discusses a common seven-part story arc. It’s effective because it captures the human condition well by addressing our common needs and wants. It looks like this:
A hero (your customer) wants something, and the challenge of getting it is inherently interesting.
Your product can fix the hero’s problem.
A guide (your brand) will help them reach the thing they want. Having a guide is important to the story because if the hero could fix her own problem, she would.
The guide gives the hero a solid plan of action. This could look like an explanation of how to use your product.
A call to action forces the hero to act or shows her what she has to lose if she doesn’t act. These are prompts that help you guide the customer to buy or sign up for your product.
Introduce negative stakes that force your customer to ask why she should care. What will she gain by acting? Show the customer her vulnerabilities, and tell her how your product can reduce them.
Incorporate this narrative arc into your message, and you’ll craft more compelling stories in your marketing.
You now understand new marketing and the characteristics of a good story. To tell a better story, it’s best to appeal to a worldview. Godin’s first principle of modern marketing is that a good story starts with a specific worldview. When you can tell a story about your idea or product that aligns with a consumer’s worldview, you’ll not only satisfy their wants and needs but validate their beliefs. In this section, we’ll talk about:
Godin defines a worldview as the set of beliefs, values, and biases that determines how a customer sees and interacts with the world. While everyone has the same basic wants and needs (food, shelter, to be happy, healthy, and so on), Godin explains that their worldview determines how they fulfill them.
For example, what’s the difference between someone on a Keto diet (which emphasizes consuming a high percentage of fat) and someone on a plant-based diet? Both people probably feel that they have found a dietary lifestyle that balances health and nutrition. They have found two different solutions to one common goal, meaning they have two different worldviews.
Often, people with similar worldviews group into small niches or micro-communities. Godin says a marketer’s success lies in finding the right group of people with a shared worldview and telling them a compelling story that aligns with that worldview.
Understanding and Changing Worldviews
Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People suggests another way to define worldviews, which he calls paradigms. He defines paradigms as the lenses through which you see the world and that shape how you interpret your situations and surroundings. These interpretations dictate your behavior, much like Godin’s idea of worldviews influencing you to buy a product.
Our sense of self is often tied to our worldview. We usually have an automatic, defensive response to information that threatens our worldview, and therefore, our sense of self. We also tend to dismiss facts that don’t conform to our worldview (also known as confirmation bias). This can be tricky to navigate as a marketer. So how do you do it?
Covey offers an answer for how to change a perspective. He proposes becoming aware of your biases, identifying the worldviews you want to adopt, and shifting your perspective. While his writing is geared toward individuals wanting to adjust their worldviews, advertisers can tailor his ideas to their marketing story to thoughtfully address a worldview. Ask yourself: What bias are you addressing? How does your product answer that worldview? Does it offer a better solution or new reality?
Now that we know what a worldview is, let’s discuss how a worldview influences your customer’s shopping habits. Godin claims worldviews can affect three customer attributes: their attention, their biases, and the language they expect. Later in the chapter, we’ll explore how you can leverage these factors to your benefit.
Your customer’s worldview is one factor that determines whether she’ll notice your product. For example, someone who’s vegan probably won’t notice your new steakhouse. Attention is hard to get, so it’s best to get the attention of people who want to give it—that is, those whose worldview aligns with your product.
Permission and Viral Marketing
Godin pioneered the concept of permission marketing in his book of the same name, where the marketer gets permission from the customer to send her product information. The idea is to get the attention of people who want to give it or who are already paying attention. It contrasts with interruption marketing, which was the old advertising method of fighting for consumers’ attention through active promotion. There are a few key elements to permission marketing:
It’s anticipated: Consumers expect to receive information from the marketer.
It’s personal: The information relates to the individual consumer.
It’s relevant: Consumers are interested in the information.
Permission marketing is often associated with email marketing, where consumers opt in to getting information from marketers. This is a more cost-efficient tactic because marketers rely on low-cost methods (like email or social media) to target interested consumers. This leads to a higher conversion rate of leads to sales, and it builds consumer trust.
Although Godin isn't clear about how worldviews and biases interact, we can infer that our worldview makes us prone to certain assumptions. Take the previous example of the vegan and your new steakhouse. Because of their worldview, someone following a vegan diet will probably have a knee-jerk reaction or bias against your steakhouse. People carry biases that affect their initial impressions of products, people, and ideas. They like having their worldviews and underlying biases confirmed, not challenged.
Biases in Marketing
Godin uses “biases” to define “worldview,” but then he goes on to say that our worldview affects our biases, which is a bit confusing. Regardless, the key point is that it’s important to understand the various forms of biases and how marketers can overcome them.
A bias is an inclination in favor of or against an idea, person, thing, belief or group. Biases can be learned or innate, and we’re often unaware of them. There are also several different kinds of biases, as Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein explain in Nudge: anchoring, availability, representativeness, status quo, and loss aversion. We’ll talk about the status quo bias, because that’s the one marketers have to overcome most often.
The status quo bias is our tendency to stick with our current option or situation—usually for no good reason. Status quo bias frequently affects our decision-making. For marketers, this means that consumers are prone to keep buying the same products they always have. How often do you change the type of toothpaste you buy? You probably have a chosen brand and flavor. That’s status quo bias at play.
As a marketer, how can you encourage consumers to break out of their status quo bias and try your product? First, consider spending more time listening to consumer needs and feedback. Read reviews, and look for gaps in the market. Then, tell the consumer how the current status quo is a losing proposition and what they have to gain from your product.
Customers expect to hear certain messages in certain ways. Think about perfume commercials—they follow a distinct format and theme.
Godin explains that language isn’t limited to specific words used. It can come in the structure of the message, the colors used, or the overall mood of your ad. Make sure the way you tell your story aligns with your customer’s worldview and the story you’re trying to tell. How you tell your story includes all of the text, images, design, and employees that go into selling your idea.
Words Can Hurt Your Marketing
The way you tell your story is just as important as the story itself. A change in one word could make all the difference in your marketing campaign. One company found that changing their checkout button from “+Cart” to “Add to Cart” increased clicks by 49%. So how do you choose your words carefully?
Consider connotations. What’s the difference between “Sign Up Now” and “Are You Ready to Get Started?” One is overused and forgettable, while the other creates a sense of excitement.
Simplify your message. In Positioning, the authors note that simple messages can be more effective, because they’re better able to cut through the noise. Our brains can only juggle a few ideas at once, so it’s best not to overload customers with too much complex information.
Perfect the word choice in your call to action. Your goal as a marketer is to get consumers to act. This usually means buying your product, but it could also look like signing up for emails. So focus on getting your call to act right.
Now that you know what a worldview is and how it affects customers, how can you use that to tell a better story? How do you tell a story that doesn’t conflict with your customer’s worldview? And how do you control the story around something that could be viewed as a negative? Godin says using frames, euphemisms, and oxymorons can help you align your story with a worldview.
According to Godin, framing is a way to spin your story to encompass or resonate with a customer’s worldview. Framing your story can also give you some control over the customer’s initial impression of your product. (Godin later expands on how important the first impression is, as we’ll discuss in Principle 3).
Take this example: A university notices that its freshman enrollment rate has been declining. They decide to frame a new story to welcome nontraditional students. Rather than presenting themselves as a school with the typical college experience (Greek life, clubs, and so on), the university decides to appeal to people who don’t fit the usual 18-year-old college freshman mold. By framing their story to appeal to nontraditional students, they may expand their prospect pool and reverse their declining enrollment.
Framing in Politics
As linguist George Lakoff writes in Don’t Think of an Elephant, politicians and political correspondents frequently use framing to speak to certain biases and thereby gain support. He describes political frames as “mental structures that shape the way we see the world,” which echoes Godin’s idea of worldviews.
Godin also recognizes the role of worldviews and framing in politics—for instance, in the way George W. Bush and John Kerry campaigned in the 2004 presidential election. He says they both flip-flopped on issues, but Bush told the story about Kerry being a flip-flopper first. Kerry tried to counter it (saying Bush flip-flopped too), but by then, Bush’s story had stuck. Godin says the best tactic is to tell the story first. Lakoff also stresses the importance of not using your opponent’s language, because it strengthens the association with their argument. So every time Kerry tried to tell the public a story about Bush being a flip-flopper, it made people think of Bush’s earlier claim that Kerry was a flip-flopper.
Creating a frame (or worldview) takes time. Lakoff uses the example of the conservatives’ “tax relief” bill. They had spent years framing taxes as a burden, making it part of their political platform and ethos. When George W. Bush proposed tax cuts, conservatives won support by calling it “tax relief,” which played off the idea that taxes are bad. “Tax relief” was framed as something that would relieve a burden on people.
Euphemisms are different names for the same idea. They are used to steer away from negative connotations or biases someone may have about an idea and help you frame it more favorably.
An example is substituting “athleisure” for “workout gear.” Athleisure (the euphemism) appeals to someone who values looking stylish, even while sweating through their workout. On the other hand, “workout gear” may still be fine for someone who just wants to go to the gym to sweat. Your language depends on which type of customer you want to appeal to. (Shortform note: To use euphemisms effectively in marketing, avoid these pitfalls: Don’t exaggerate the value of the product, don’t mislead, don’t minimize an important issue, and don’t be so obscure that people don’t know what you’re talking about. Instead, try to be creative, positive, inspirational, and mysterious,)
Marketing Is Like a Camera
Throughout the book, Godin describes worldviews as a lens. What does he mean? Let’s compare it to taking a picture: a still life of a fruit basket. The photographer is the consumer. The fruit basket is the product you’re marketing. The camera they’re looking through is their worldview, and the type of camera, whether an iPhone or DSLR, affects how the fruit basket looks when they view it. Framing is how you, the marketer, set up the display: Is a certain fruit positioned toward the front? Is the background black to draw the customer’s eye to the fruit and create a moody atmosphere? Or is it yellow to evoke a sense of happiness and fun? What’s the lighting like? As you can see, many different frames could be applied to alter how the fruit looks to the photographer/customer. Notice how we said “still life of a fruit basket” and not “pile of fruit”? There’s the euphemism.
Like a euphemism, an oxymoron is a way to frame an idea, but by combining contradictory words in a phrase. With oxymorons, you can use new words or phrases for an old concept in order to avoid negative connotations or to catch the consumer’s attention. You can target people who have two worldviews that seem like they’re at odds with each other.
For example, “non-alcoholic beer” is an oxymoron because beer is, by definition, alcoholic. This phrasing appeals to someone who likes beer but doesn’t want the inebriating effects that come with drinking alcohol.
Godin’s Oxymorons
Godin uses the word oxymoron a lot, particularly on his blog. While oxymorons tend to be words or phrases, Godin also refers to ideas that confound expectations by surprising the reader with a contrast as oxymorons. His usage is similar to a juxtaposition, where two ideas are placed next to each other for a contrasting effect.
For example, in a blog post, “What will be on your tombstone,” Godin points out that articles about Google often mention that the company serves employees lunch prepared by the former chef for the band the Grateful Dead. He calls this memorable factoid an oxymoron, although it isn’t an oxymoron in the traditional definition.
In terms of what that means for your marketing, Godin seems to recommend that you throw the audience an interesting curveball—something they weren’t expecting to hear.
Before you try to identify the worldviews of other people, it can be helpful to identify your own worldviews and how they’ve impacted your shopping, hiring, dating, voting habits, and so on.
Think of the last product or service you bought even though you didn’t really need it. What was it? What story did the marketer tell about it?
Describe the appearance of the product or person offering the service. How did they tell you this story? (Was it with words or images? Did they appeal to any other senses?) For instance, story elements could include the overall visual aesthetic of the store, the specific patterns and colors of the packaging, the smell of the store, or the clothes of the person selling you the story.
What kind of worldview, belief, or feeling were these details appealing to? Do you actually have this worldview?
What other products or services have you bought because of this worldview? How will awareness of your susceptibility to this marketing influence your buying patterns going forward?
Worldviews affect how and what information the customer takes in. It’s just as important to understand how they process information and make snap judgments. This is Godin’s second principle of new marketing. Understanding how your customer thinks can help you break through the noise of other product messages and catch your customer’s attention. Godin identifies four steps customers follow to make snap judgments and navigate the marketplace.
Cognitive Dissonance
Godin titles this section “Cognitive Dissonance” but doesn’t expand on or define the concept of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when we hold thoughts or beliefs that oppose or contradict our decisions or attitudes. This might be what Godin is referencing when he says sometimes people can hold two opposing worldviews.
Consider a consumer who views themselves as money-savvy, or as someone who likes to save money. That consumer finds a product on sale and decides to buy it, even though he doesn’t really need it. He later feels guilty—why? On one hand, he did save money by purchasing it on sale, but he would’ve saved more by not purchasing it at all. As consumers, sometimes we don’t act in ways that align with our beliefs.
As consumers, we’re bombarded with so much information that it’s necessary for us to disregard most of it. Think of all the information you face regularly: nutrition labels, prices, billboards, sale signs, recipes, instruction manuals, and more. We can’t take it all in. However, if there is a change in our environment, we’re likely to notice it. That’s why you probably noticed the new coffee shop that opened on your route to work.
Godin recommends that marketers use this knowledge to make thoughtful changes in a customer’s environment to get their attention.
Get Their Attention
While Godin believes appealing to beliefs and feelings will get your customer’s attention, Donald Miller thinks you should address basic needs. In Building a StoryBrand, Miller breaks down consumer behavior into two categories:
Behavior 1: Meet basic survival needs. The brain prioritizes satisfying nourishment, security, relationships, and meaning.
Behavior 2: Ignore complexity—the energy required to understand something complex could be spent on survival needs.
To grab a customer’s attention, Miller recommends that marketers present a survival-related message about their product. Let customers know that your product is the answer that will satisfy Behavior 1, and make sure your message isn’t overly complex (otherwise you won’t overcome Behavior 2). Here are some effective messages:
Your product will save the customer money, time, or resources.
Your product can build relationships or create opportunities for generosity.
Your product can help them acquire status.
Your product can help them find meaning.
So which is the better tactic? You might find more success if you can appeal to both. For example, buying a Ferrari satisfies both: a basic need for transportation and the feeling of luxury and speed.
Once your customer notices a change in their environment, they’ll make an assumption and build their own story about why it changed. Usually, their worldview will shape these assumptions. Assumptions influence your consumer’s first impression of your product and can determine whether they’ll buy what you’re selling.
The Influence of Perception on Products
Another way to think of assumptions is in terms of consumer perception. Customer perception is how people select, organize, and interpret information they encounter. In The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, the authors describe how a consumer’s perception of a product is more important than the quality of the product. Therefore, your audience must believe that your product is the best option.
Two inputs alter perception: 1) external or environmental triggers and 2) personal expectations and worldviews. As a marketer, you can’t control someone’s expectations, but you can create meaningful stimuli to guide your consumer’s perception. One way to do this is by making your product an experience for the consumer. Most marketing campaigns rely on visual stimuli but try to appeal to multiple senses. This will help you tell a better story and mask the feeling of being advertised to.
After noticing changes and making assumptions, customers will use their assumptions to predict what will happen next. Godin says predicting what will happen next helps customers prepare for the next change. This is where they build their own story about your idea or product and determine whether they believe your lie.
Predictions in Politics
Like marketers, politicians use people’s predictions to their advantage, allowing people to fill in the gaps of an idea with their own story. In Win Bigly, Scott Adams describes how Donald Trump’s presidential campaign focused heavily on building a wall. However, Trump was vague about the details of the wall. This allowed voters to fill in the gaps on how they thought the wall should be built, ultimately causing more people to attach to the idea.
Finally, customers stick to the story they predict (even when presented with facts that may contradict them) until another change forces them to repeat the cycle. They make snap judgments all the time about people, products, food, stores, website design, dating profiles, and more. Most people make their decision about something—such as whether they like someone or want to buy that shirt—within moments of encountering it.
More on Snap Judgments
Throughout this section of the book, Godin references Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, who says there are two processes for arriving at a decision: conscious thinking and unconscious thinking. Conscious thinking is our logical (but less efficient) way of coming to conclusions. Unconscious thinking is our intuitive and quick way of parsing through information—or snap judgments.
Snap judgments are beneficial because they help us quickly dissect relevant information. However, snap judgments don’t always follow explainable logic, and they can be influenced by time pressures, biases, and stressors. If you want to make better snap judgments as a consumer, try to avoid overwhelming yourself with too much information, accept that you don’t have to rationalize everything, and actively try to understand and counteract your negative biases.
You’ve learned how customers filter information through their worldview. This tendency to make quick, lasting judgments means it’s important to make a good first impression with your product and company. In this section, we’ll discuss first encounters and impressions, how to make a good impression, and the power of personal connection.
A customer’s first encounter is their initial introduction to your product. They may walk into your store on a whim or click on your website by accident. However, the first encounter may not cause them to engage with your story. And if it doesn’t engage them, they’ll disregard their first encounter as they interact with other options in the marketplace.
In contrast, Godin contends that when you successfully grab the customer’s attention in an encounter, you create an impression that leads them to make a snap judgment about your idea or product.
That’s why first impressions are so important for a marketer—it’s your best (and sometimes only) opportunity to get through to a customer. Consider these two examples showing how first impressions work:
Since not every encounter will turn into an impression, the best you can do as a marketer is make sure that no matter what encounter a customer has, it's a good one. That way, when an encounter does eventually make an impression on them (and Godin assumes that an impression will happen eventually), it'll be a favorable one. He thinks to ensure good encounters (and by extension, good impressions), every way you incorporate your story should be perfect—or as close as you can get.
If you can’t be sure which encounter with your product will create a first impression on a customer, how do you incorporate your story perfectly to get through in a favorable way? Godin believes being authentic and telling a cohesive story are the keys to creating good impressions.
Choose Color Carefully
What factors affect a potential customer’s impression of your product? Color plays a big role in unconscious thinking. In a 2006 study, researchers discovered that up to 90% of snap judgments about products are based on color. Your choice of color can influence mood, appetite, and even perception of time spent waiting. Green is often associated with growth and nature, and red is often associated with aggression or an increase in appetite.
However, not everyone experiences color the same way. Gender and nationality are two factors that influence response to color. Consider your target audience and what your colors might be saying to them.
In Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 congressional campaign, she used purple to represent red and blue (colors associated with right and left) coming together. Her designer also used yellow to convey optimism and blue for the Democratic Party. This color scheme helped her stand out from traditional political campaigns that generally use red, white, and blue.
Godin recommends telling a story that aligns with your company, the product itself, and brand identity. This could be a story about luxury, family, beauty, or comfort—just be sure this story is true to the overall ethos of your idea and brand.
For example, French brand Louis Vuitton makes luxury handbags and apparel that retail for thousands of dollars. They’ve built their brand around exclusivity and luxury. The brand never offers sales or discounts, and it doesn’t have an outlet store. This approach reinforces their image as an exclusive brand. If Louis Vuitton decided to offer a discount to bring in more sales, it would be inauthentic to the ethos of the company.
How to Be Authentic
Throughout the book, Godin stresses the importance of being authentic in your marketing. There are a few things you can do to create more authentic advertising campaigns.
In Purple Cow, Godin says you should be passionate about your idea or product. This will make your idea and your story more contagious because you’ll naturally be able to tell consumers about what kind of value your product can add to their life.
If you’re not already passionate about a product you’re working on, try to understand it from the perspective of someone who already loves it. You can also try advertising icon David Ogilvy’s advice: Use the product. This puts you in the consumer’s shoes and helps you understand the benefits of your product.
It’s important to make all elements of your branding cohesive to account for all of the possible ways people encounter your product. Your story should be part of all aspects of your brand. Godin says every department is part of marketing. If the president of your favorite company used a competitor’s products, would that change your perception of their products?
Because you don’t know whether a customer’s first (or second or third) encounter will be their first impression, it’s best to cover your bases and incorporate your authentic story into every possible encounter. If you tell an authentic story across all potential encounters, you’re more likely to make a good first impression.
Let’s say you’re applying for a new job. The image you present to the hiring manager should be authentic (while still professional) and highlight the skills you actually bring to the table (you shouldn’t lie about having skills you don’t have). However, you should make the presentation of this image consistent throughout the design of your resumé, language in your cover letter, the kinds of pictures you post on your social media profiles, email correspondence with the hiring manager, and clothes you wear to the interview. Having a cohesive story will increase the likelihood that the hiring manager’s first impression of you (whether that occurs from your emails, resume, outfit, or interview) is one that you intended to portray.
Create a Marketing Plan
In Godin’s view, your goal in marketing is to turn strangers into friends and friends into customers. To turn strangers into customers, try making a marketing plan. In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, Allan Dib attributes the failure of most small businesses to their lack of a marketing plan, and he outlines how to make a plan. His method can be broken down into three phases:
Awareness: This is where you make prospects (or strangers) aware of your product and generate interest. Do this by identifying your target audience, developing the message you’ll tell that audience, and figuring out what medium you’ll use to tell them that story.
Familiarity: This deals with leads (or friends) who have taken an interest in your product. They’ve taken some sort of action, like signing up for email notifications or putting a product in their cart, to indicate interest. Get your lead’s contact information into a database, deliver value, and build their trust.
Enthusiasm: This is when your leads become customers. They’ve bought your product. You want to build their enthusiasm so 1) they’ll keep purchasing from you, and 2) they’ll tell their friends. Give them an extraordinary experience.
Suppose you tried to be authentic and cohesive with your story, but your customer had a bad first impression—maybe they were in a bad mood that day, or you said the wrong thing in your interview. What should you do? If you’ve left a bad first impression with a customer, the best remedy is genuine personal interaction, in which a customer can openly communicate with you or a person from your company.
Godin believes personal interactions are the best way to foster authentic relationships with customers. This could come from a recommendation from a friend, a pleasant interaction with an employee, or a friendly phone call. He recommends you ditch the script and connect with your customers. Good personal interactions cut through the gimmicks and create lasting impressions.
Make It Personal
Let’s look at two ways to make your marketing more personal: customer service and influencer sponsorships.
In Raving Fans, Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles describe how creating better customer service experiences can help companies succeed. They say the key to happy (not just satisfied) customers is through this five-step plan: Define your ideal customer service experience, discover your customer’s ideal experience, integrate your vision with their needs, build an effective and consistent system, and always exceed customer expectations.
Since the publication of this book in 2005, marketing has seen even more opportunities to connect with consumers, mainly through social media. Marketers have tapped into the power of personal interaction by advertising through influencer sponsorships. Consumers will follow social media influencers because they like an influencer’s content. When influencers recommend products, their followers are more likely to try those products because they trust the influencer or share the influencer’s worldview. Many brands work with influencers so they can add a personal touch to their marketing.
Learn how to use your understanding of your customers to get through to them.
Consider a story you’re trying to sell. Where are you selling it?
How can you ensure that it makes enough of a change in your customer’s environment for them to notice it?
Look at your product with fresh eyes. (Tip: Ask a friend to take a look at your product.) What assumptions and/or predictions might someone make about it?
If these assumptions and predictions are inaccurate, how could you pre-empt them?
You now know the impact of an authentic, cohesive story across all points of contact with your consumer. So you just need to find a believable story, right? Yes, but Godin warns against getting carried away.
As we discussed earlier, marketers are selling the story and a feeling about the product, not the product itself. And if you’re marketing to a worldview, you’ll tell your story to people who want to listen. This leaves room for marketers to exploit consumers and the experience they hope for.
But you shouldn’t deceive consumers with your storytelling. Godin urges marketers to know the difference between telling a fib and committing fraud—and to never commit fraud. We’ll discuss this difference, as well as some examples of each.
Godin defines fibs as stories that stretch the subjective truth. If a fib is believed, it doesn’t harm the customer, and it enhances your product. Usually, a fib stretches the truth about how a product will make a customer feel. If you tell a fib and your customer believes it, it becomes true. Godin notes that it’s okay to fib parts of your story, as long as it benefits both you and your consumer.
Godin uses Georg Riedel as an example. Riedel is a glassblower who specializes in wine glasses. People—even those in the wine-tasting community—insist his glasses improve the taste of the wine. Riedel’s story (that a good wine deserves a luxury vessel for a better tasting experience) aligns authentically with his product (handcrafted wine glasses). People believe that wine tastes better in a Riedel glass, despite no factual evidence to back this up. Their belief in the product improves their experience drinking wine, so the story benefits both Riedel and his customers. It’s a common fib in the wine-tasting community that the right wine glass can improve the taste of wine.
(Shortform note: There may not have been much research on the topic at the time of the book’s initial publication in 2005. However, more recent studies show that there may actually be a correlation. One Japanese study supports the idea that glass shape influences taste, while another study shows that visual perception influences taste.)
Ethics of Fibbing
Godin advocates for marketers to have integrity and to be honest and authentic with their customers. Even his popular idea of permission marketing (advertising to someone who has given advance consent) puts more power into the customer’s hands. It seems like a contradiction to also say fibbing is okay. Godin’s definition of fibbing (bending the truth, telling an unimportant lie) leaves a lot up to the marketer’s discretion and could be abused. Where do you draw the line between fibbing and committing fraud, and who determines this line?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Institute for Advertising Ethics (IAE) are two organizations that distinguish the line between fibs and frauds. Both organizations echo Godin’s claim that products should not cause harm to the consumer. This includes physical, psychological, and financial harm. When appropriate, scientific evidence should be cited to back up advertising claims. The IAE also notes that it should be clear to consumers that they’re viewing an advertisement—in other words, don’t masquerade your ad as news or editorial content.
In general, the FTC and IAE advise marketers to be honest with consumers, while fraudulent claims can result in legal action.
Godin explains that fraud is when you stretch the objective truth with claims that can be proven false. Unlike a fib, a customer’s belief in fraud doesn’t make it true. Fibs can enhance your product, while fraud hides the fact your product isn’t as good as you’re claiming it is. Telling a story that isn’t mutually beneficial to you and your customer is fraud.
Godin also notes that while fraud is unethical, it’s also not a very smart business strategy. If you sell a product that harms the people who buy it, soon you won’t have any customers to keep buying it.
For example, women’s wellness brand Goop faced a lawsuit over claims their “vaginal eggs” could balance hormones and regulate menstrual cycles. They also claimed their “flower essence” would cure depression. These claims were not scientifically backed and caused harm to customers who believed this story, resulting in a $145,000 settlement.
So Are All Marketers Liars?
The title of Godin’s book is misleading, and some readers expressed their confusion about it. All Marketers Are Liars plays on a negative connotation of lies, and it paints marketers in a bad light, at least initially. Understanding the title requires understanding Godin’s distinction between fibbing and committing fraud. Marketers are liars in the sense that they are fibbing or stretching the subjective truth of their story, but they are not making objectively untrue statements, advertising harmful claims, or lying to the point of deceit or fraud. So marketers aren’t really liars by the usual definition, just storytellers or fibbers.
While later book jackets were redesigned to address the confusing title (the words
“are liars” were crossed out with “tell stories” written above it), Godin includes this explanation for the book title:
- “I wasn’t being completely truthful with you when I named this book. Marketers aren’t liars. They are just storytellers. It’s the consumers who are liars. As consumers, we lie to ourselves every day…. Successful marketers are just the providers of stories that consumers choose to believe.”
Godin was fibbing—or telling a lie that his readers were likely to tell themselves and believe about marketers (that they lie)—in order to entice people to read his book. In doing so, he provided a story that his customer chose to believe. The question for both Godin and the reader is whether the original fib of all marketers being liars (which is still visible as part of the design of the cover) is mutually beneficial, especially since Godin advocates authenticity and doesn’t actually believe marketers should objectively lie.
As you can see, there’s a lot of room for marketers to abuse their power by crossing the line from fibbing to committing fraud. As a consumer, how can you tell if a product will actually do what it says it does? Godin proposes a simple two-question test for consumers to use to determine whether a marketer is telling a fib or fraud.
Protect Yourself Against Fraud
Godin introduces a relevant question regarding the relationship between consumers and marketers. Godin seems to acknowledge that there is a thin line between fibs and frauds marketers can cross. He also advocates for marketers to be ethical and honest in their marketing, saying consumers shouldn’t be forced into a position where they’re constantly fighting off deceptive marketing (though he later says consumers should take the time to understand a product before buying it).
However, his solution to the problem of fibs and frauds is to place the burden of responsibility onto the consumer, not the marketer. Also, his test seems undeveloped. How can a consumer know what the marketer knows or the bad effects a fraudulent product can cause? A recent investigation found that thousands of unsafe and fake products had been listed on Amazon.
Beyond asking Godin’s general questions, try using these more specific tactics to avoid a fraudulent product on Amazon:
Look for authorized sellers. Consider buying directly from a seller’s site, rather than a third party’s site.
Search for reviews of the product online. If you see many one-star reviews, that may be a sign to avoid a product. But if a product has mostly five-star reviews without much commentary, you may want to avoid it too—it could be a result of fake reviews.
Compare the product to other similar products. Is there much variation in price? Does the cost of shipping look reasonable?
If you’re unsure, try contacting the seller beforehand.
You now understand the difference between fibs and frauds, as well as why you should never commit fraud. Let’s say you told a story and avoided fraud, but it was a flop—now what? In this chapter, we’ll discuss some of the common obstacles you’ll run into as a marketer and Godin’s ideas on how to use them to your advantage. First, we’ll tackle how to handle competitors. Then, we’ll identify where you might have gone wrong if your product didn’t do as well as you thought it would.
Competition in the marketplace is inevitable. How can your marketing be authentic when there are so many other marketers trying to be authentic too? What happens if someone is already telling the story you want to tell? Godin presents a few ways to handle competition.
If you’re having trouble finding a place to start with your story, Godin recommends telling a similar story to one someone else is using in a different market. If you can identify an existing worldview and a story that already works, you can adapt that strategy to your new product. The key here is to mimic a story from someone in a different market, selling a different product.
Determine Your Competitors
By identifying who is and is not a competitor, it’ll be easier for you to determine where to look for inspiration and when to appeal to a different worldview. As you develop your marketing for a product, it’s important to situate yourself within the marketplace and identify your friends and foes. Consider completing a competitor analysis by examining your competition, what works for them, and the different kinds of stories they’re telling. Competition can fall into three categories:
Primary competitors: When you hear “competitors,” the first companies or people that come to mind are probably your primary competitors. They share a similar product or service to your audience. Wendy’s and McDonald’s are primary competitors.
Secondary competitors: These companies offer similar products to a different audience, or they offer a similar product of greater or lesser quality. For example, Tiffany is a secondary competitor to Kay Jewelers. Both sell jewelry but for different audiences and at different price points.
Tertiary competitors: These competitors are loosely related to your company or industry. They don’t pose much of a threat unless they decide to expand into your market. Gatorade and Under Armour are tertiary competitors because they’re loosely related by the worldview they address ( that values athletic excellence). But unless Under Armour decided to create a line of sports drinks, they don’t pose a threat to Gatorade.
But what if the story you want to tell is coming from someone with a similar product? If you’re entering a market where someone else is already succeeding with their story, don’t try to tell their story better. If consumers have already bought a competitor’s lie, they’ll stick to that story, and it’ll be hard to change their bias. Godin says the best tactic is to tell a different story to a different worldview.
For example, Tesla has found success with its luxury electric vehicles. While they were not the first to produce electric cars, they took a new approach to marketing electric cars. Whereas manufacturers focused heavily on the environmentally friendly marketing angle of electric cars, Tesla associated their cars with a worldview that values luxury and technological advancement.
Learn From Your Competition
In The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Al Ries and Jack Trout advise that you 1) define your brand in one word, and 2) don’t use another brand’s word. If you use their word, you’ll probably end up strengthening the word’s association with their brand.
That doesn’t mean you should completely ignore your primary competition. In Ogilvy On Advertising, David Ogilvy suggests you look at your competition’s ads, because you might be able to adopt (or better yet, adapt) techniques that are proven to work for that specific industry.
You can also pretend to be a customer at a competitor’s store or site. This can help you identify points of encounter and potential first impressions. Were their employees nice to you? What was the atmosphere of the store? Do you like their color scheme on their website? What strengths and weaknesses do your competitors have? Answering these questions can help guide what kind of consumer experience and story you want to craft.
You can also try to narrow down an existing worldview. In other words, find a niche within a niche. Godin notes that people can hold multiple (and often opposing) worldviews, so you should be able to find a more specific subset of people within a larger worldview.
When music streaming services started becoming popular, Spotify and Pandora were two of the largest competitors. While they both appealed to a larger worldview (“paying for access to a library of music is better than purchasing to own music files”), Spotify found a niche within that worldview. Their story focused on creating individualized playlists for every mood. Narrowing the larger worldview worked in Spotify’s favor.
Create a New Niche
In Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne suggest that one step in creating an uncontested market is figuring out what makes your product unique. If you need inspiration on finding a place in an innovative market, consider these tactics:
Think about how customers weigh price with performance. What factors motivate them to buy better quality products? What features aren’t as important to them?
Think about appealing to under-served buyers. There are three kinds of buyers: the one who authorizes the purchase, the one who sets up the product for use, and the one who actually uses the product. Are any of these three buyers neglected in the current market? Try catering to their needs.
Think about adding emotion or function. If your market typically appeals to function or logic, consider adding emotion to make your consumer feel something. If your market typically appeals to emotion, add logic. Find new ways to appeal to different ways customers think and experience the world.
Another tactic is to predict how a current worldview might evolve. Because worldviews are susceptible to change, Godin says this gives you the opportunity to adapt your marketing stories, or even guess how current worldviews may change. If you can predict how an existing worldview could evolve, you can frame your story to it and ideally beat your competitors to the market of the new worldview.
Making Better Predictions to Encourage Innovation
Predicting how a worldview might evolve is arguably a riskier tactic that requires some creativity and innovation. However, several authors offer advice for making better predictions and becoming more innovative.
In Originals, Adam Grant explores common practices among innovators. If you’re wanting to become more innovative, start by generating lots of ideas. Not all of them will be good ones, but that’s okay—the most important thing is to get in the practice of using your imagination and questioning why the world is the way it is.
As you practice generating more ideas, try Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner’s advice in Superforecasting:
Broaden your horizons. By exposing yourself to new ideas, perspectives, and worldviews, you might find inspiration for your prediction. It’ll also make it easier to generate ideas from different perspectives.
Try reverse-engineering. Start with your conclusion or the answer your product provides. Then work your way backward to figure out how to get from your conclusion to your current problem. To get into the habit of practicing reverse-engineering, you can try it with current worldviews—think about how past worldviews evolved into their current ones.
Attack your own conclusions. If you think you’ve found an answer, try thinking of counter-arguments or ways it could work differently. You might think of a better prediction.
It’s also important to understand that innovation is a process, not a single event, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself to change the world.
You’ll no doubt encounter some bumps in the road on your marketing journey. Let’s say you used Godin’s tips, told a good story, and it failed. We’ll discuss some stages where you may have gone wrong.
Grow From Failure
Godin is open about the importance of failure and why entrepreneurs who fail often are more likely to succeed. In a blog post about how to fail better, he advises that whenever you fail, take ownership of it, and identify exactly where you went wrong. That way, you won’t make the same mistake twice. Also, never blame someone else for your failure.
In Principle 2, we talked about the difficulty of getting a consumer’s attention. Even if you have a great product and a great story, your target customers may not notice it among all of the other products vying for their attention.
Let’s say your product is a new brand of deodorant. Customers may not have noticed your new deodorant among all the others available in the deodorant aisle. To make it stand out, you could give your deodorant more eye-catching packaging that’s different from your competitors’.
Get Their Attention Online
Getting a customer’s attention online presents a different set of challenges. In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller stresses the importance of an effective website. Here are five tips to overhauling your website:
Be explicit about what you’re offering your customer. This might be satisfying an aspirational identity or fixing a specific problem.
Provide a clear call to action. Often, this comes in the form of a button for adding something to your cart or signing up for emails. Use colors or fonts to make this button distinct, and put it at the top right of your page.
Use images to show customer transformations. This is how you promise your customer that your product will satisfy their needs.
Simplify your explanation of your revenue streams. If your company offers a range of products, create a message about your market as a whole, or sell different products on their own websites.
Cut down your text. One of the biggest mistakes brands make is bombarding consumers with too much information in large blocks of text.
If someone noticed your product but didn’t try it, Godin suggests that you 1) may not have addressed the right worldview with your story, 2) may not have told your story using the language this worldview expected to hear, or 3) didn’t compel them to change a bias that favors another product.
Maybe your deodorant caught someone’s eye, but they didn’t buy it. Your deodorant probably didn’t compel them to switch from buying their usual deodorant. In this instance, you’d want to narrow your niche to appeal to a more specific subset of people who wear deodorant, since deodorant appeals to a large proportion of people.
The 10-Person Test
In his chapter in Tools of Titans, Godin advises marketers to start by telling 10 interested people about your new idea or product. They should be people you trust, who trust you, and who would probably love your new product. They could be friends or people who follow your blog. If they like it, they’ll find other people to tell, and your product will spread; if they don’t, you should probably spend some time rethinking your product.
If someone didn’t like your product, Godin argues that it probably didn’t address their problem or worldview like you thought it would. This has more to do with the product itself than the marketing. While Godin notes that this isn’t the marketer’s fault, he believes this doesn’t happen often because bad products are rarely manufactured.
However, if your product isn’t popular, a feature that didn’t work as promised may be to blame. Perhaps you touted your new deodorant’s clear formula as eliminating white marks on clothes. Maybe consumers tried it, but it still left marks on their clothes. The issue is the formula of the deodorant itself.
Your Purple Cow Still Matters
There’s a popular phrase in marketing: “Nothing kills a bad product faster than good marketing.” Good marketing generates consumer attention, but if the product doesn’t work, that attention will quickly turn to how bad the product is. That means your great marketing story won’t save a product that doesn’t work.
For more insight on market success, it’s useful to pair Godin’s ideas on marketing stories in All Marketers Are Liars with his ideas on remarkable products in Purple Cow. Even though you should have a good story, it’s important to also have a “Purple Cow” (Godin’s name for a remarkable product). But how do you come up with a “Purple Cow”?
Godin suggests that passion is the key to thinking of remarkable products. If you create something you’re passionate about, there are likely other people who will like it too. If you make something other people are passionate about, you’ll already have a market. If you find yourself marketing a product you’re not passionate about (which is inevitable), try looking at it from the perspective of someone who is passionate about it and understand why they like it so much.
Does everyone who tries your product like it? If someone noticed your product, tried it, and liked it, but didn’t tell anyone, they may not have felt compelled or comfortable talking about your product. Or you may have tapped into a worldview that doesn’t have a cohesive community.
Let’s say people are noticing and liking your new clear deodorant. But your sales don’t reflect as much growth as you expected. Because you’ve tapped into a worldview without a cohesive community (people who like to wear deodorant that doesn’t stain), your consumers aren’t recommending it to their friends. You could try to market your product to dancers, performers, or models (who need to present a clean image with their clothing), who are a more cohesive community.
Word of Mouth Marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing or viral marketing, in which members of a community spread the word about an idea or product, became popular around the time of this book’s publication. But how can a marketer control whether consumers spread the word? In Contagious, Jonah Berger offers ideas for fostering word-of-mouth marketing:
Give people “social currency:” Create a remarkable or exclusive product that people can brag about.
Create effective triggers: People will talk about your product as long as they’re thinking about it. You need to stimulate and remind your consumers about your product. Make sure your triggers are relevant, frequent, and actionable.
Generate an emotional response: Give potential customers the basics about your product, and focus the rest of your marketing on making them feel something.
Create public visibility: If you find a way to make it clear publicly that people use your product, the product will be more likely to sell itself.
Provide practical value: People want to share things they find value in. Create value by applying a discount to your product or by providing helpful information once they’ve purchased your product.
Tell a story: As Godin emphasizes in this book, people like to tell stories, so weave a narrative into the information about your product.
Telling a good story is an art, so it will take practice to hone your storytelling. It’s helpful to get into the habit of reflecting on the stories you tell and on ways to improve them for next time.
Describe an instance where you were trying to persuade someone to buy into your story, but it didn’t work. This could be a story about your job experience, a product you’re selling, your reasons for applying for a loan, or why you’d be a great partner. What was the story you tried to sell?
Was your story actually your story, or was it someone else’s? Was it authentic?
Were all elements of your story cohesive? Did the story you intended to tell actually align with the story you told? Why or why not? (Perhaps you were trying to tell a story about being a funny, energetic, and enthusiastic person, but this didn’t come through because of the clothes you wore or your monotone voice.)
Are you confident in your story? It can be hard to convince other people to believe a story that you don’t believe. Brainstorm a few ways to start convincing yourself of your story. (This could look like using the product you’re trying to sell, or doing power poses to practice confidence in your next interview.)